What is One Shepherd?

One Shepherd is leadership development through intense war gaming.

What is One Shepherd? It’s a Warrior-Scholar tradition that transforms good men and women into great leaders. It’s a school that uses intense, live-action war games to teach leadership. Success in the game depends on an astute grasp of military doctrine and daring leadership.

Why such realistic war games? Such games allow us to explore leader decision-making through simulated combat missions. Adventurous games offer profound learning through stages of planning, execution, and reflection. One Shepherd immerses Warriors in combat missions that involve military battle systems, real firearms, and live-action simulation. This is serious fun.

One Shepherd is learning through the adventure of Warriorhood.

How does One Shepherd achieve this? We use military equipment – night vision, tactical radio, and navigation systems. One Shepherd training uses Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System (MILES), the most advanced force-on-force simulation in the world. One Shepherd is the only school in the world to make MILES gear available to the civilian public.

One Shepherd AR15 firearms use blank-firing adaptors and blank ammunition. Each time a blank is fired, it activates the MILES eye-safe laser. MILES permits battle engagements at the maximum effective range with “kill” capabilities out to distances of a half mile (800 meters).

One Shepherd training takes place in a field environment. Each semester is seven consecutive days, offered in the late spring and early fall. The last few days of every semester includes a war game with continuous tactical patrolling for three days and two nights. Warriors plan combat missions, conduct patrols, and make decisions in battle. Warriors then assess their selves, and their performance as combat teams. This is serious learning.

One Shepherd is a Warrior rite of passage since 1981.

How are we different? One Shepherd leader education is modular and scalable from novice to expert. One Shepherd educates each Warrior from basic training and on through mid-level leadership. Warriors may then be selected to undergo instructor certification, or to train as a battle staff officer for senior-level leadership. One Warrior. One Leader. One Shepherd.

One Shepherd offers a comprehensive curriculum of dismounted tactical patrolling operations. No single school in the US Armed Forces presents an applied and comprehensive curriculum of tactics – not even the School of the Infantry for the US Army or Marine Corps.

One Shepherd offers this instruction in just six separate weeks of training spread over three years. That’s 42 days of unrivaled quality leadership education. And at cost of about $100 per day, One Shepherd’s value is unmatched anywhere in the world! This is serious challenge.